Alexander of Islay

Tantallon
Castle, East Lothian, Where Alexander Spent His Second
Imprisonment

Alexander of Islay lived from about 1390 to 1449. Also known as
Alasdair MacDomhnaill or MacDhòmhnaill, he was the third chief of Clan
Donald to hold the title Lord of the Isles. The
wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our
Historical Timeline.

James I initially held
Alexander of Islay (who was a slightly removed cousin) in high regard. However,
as early as 1426 Alexander had occupied much of Ross and was using the title of
Master of the Earldom of Ross despite the fact that
the title was now a royal possession. It is not certain whether this was with
the blessing of James I or in defiance of
him, though what happened next gives us a clue. In 1428
James invited Alexander to meet him in
Inverness, and when he did
so the King had Alexander, Alexander's mother, and many of his followers
imprisoned.

James I's next move was to
offer the Lordship of the
Isles to John Mór MacDonald, Alexander's uncle and a man who had
rebelled against Alexander's father, Donald of
Islay, in 1387. John Mór refused the offer, and in a confused
incident the man sent to make him the offer then killed him while trying to
arrest him. James I tried to distance
himself from the act, but the incident weakened his position, and before the
end of 1428 he had released Alexander on the promise of good behaviour.

Alexander's "good behaviour" was to attack
Inverness in Spring 1429,
and to support the claims of a surviving grandson of
Robert, Duke of Albany to the
throne of Scotland in place of James I.
The death of the rival claimant very soon afterwards left Alexander highly
exposed to retribution from James I,
which quickly followed. The King launched a punitive expedition in search of
Alexander, who then surrendered to James in
Edinburgh on 27 August 1429.
Alexander was then imprisoned in
Tantallon Castle in
East Lothian.

In Alexander's enforced absence, James I sent Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar,
and the man who had stopped Donald of Islay at
the Battle of Harlaw, to gain control of lands still owing allegiance to the
Lords of the Isles.
The government army faced opposition under the command of Alexander's kinsmen
Donald Balloch and Alisdair Carrach, and the outcome was a costly defeat for
the Earl of Mar at the Battle of
Inverlochy in September
1431.

In the aftermath, James, now feeling he had no other way to bring
the islands under control, released Alexander from imprisonment, though this
time keeping his mother as hostage to his future good behaviour. Alexander was
not to cross James again, and by the time
of the latter's death in 1437, Alexander, Lord of the Isles was also using the
title of Earl of Ross, apparently with the King's blessing.

In strictly territorial terms, the end of Alexander's tenure as
Lord of the Isles
marked the high point of the fortunes of Clan Donald. With the Hebrides, much
of the west coast of Scotland and the huge expanse of Ross under his undisputed
control, Alexander controlled a considerably larger area than
Somerled had done at the height of his powers:
though he did so with permission from the Scottish crown rather than as an
sovereign monarch, independent of both Norway and Scotland, as
Somerled had been.

On the other hand, by moving his focus and residence to the richer
areas of Dingwall and
Inverness, Alexander did
much to undermine the unity and loyalty that the
Lords of the Isles
had once commanded across their heartlands in the west and in the islands.
Alexander died in 1449. He was succeeded by his son, usually referred to as
John MacDonald II, Lord of the Isles
to avoid confusion with the earlier John of
Islay.